The Dower House

by Annabel Davis-Goff

Widely praised for her rich and elegant prose, Annabel Davis-Goff delivers the story of Molly Hassard, an Anglo-Irish orphan coming of age in a formerly privileged society. As the Protestant-Irish emerge from the postwar years, the refuse to face the They have beautiful old houses, but can scarcely afford to heat them; eat meals on exquisitely set tables, while the roof leaks; and talk very seriously about the importance of making suitable marriages.

When Molly flees the genteel poverty of Ireland for London of the 1960s, she must balance the allure of the new against the romance of a world that no longer exists.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Ireland, Fiction

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

I was born in the South of Ireland in 1942. My parents belonged to the Anglo-Irish generation that had been brought up during English rule, and had lived through the Anglo-Irish War, the Civil War, the Irish Free State and, by the time I was born, were adapting to belonging to the Republic of Ireland. This is the period I wrote about in Walled Gardens, a family memoir that is also an account of a time and a place. Walled Gardens was generously reviewed in the US, and in the British Isles, where it is still in print. The book was, for some time, on the Irish Best Seller List.author

I left Ireland when I was seventeen – it was not the land of opportunity it now is – and worked in England as a secretary, in television, and eventually in the briefly flourishing film industry of the 1960s. When the movie boom ended, I moved to California, where I lived for over a year, and then married and moved to Connecticut. I worked briefly in American movies – first as a script supervisor (as I had in England) then as a screenwriter.

While I was at home bringing up my children in Connecticut, I started to write Walled Gardens (1989). My next book was The Dower House (1997), a novel (also generously reviewed). This Cold Country was published by Harcourt in the spring of 2002. Following publication I was interviewed by N.P.R and appeared on Good Morning, America. The paperback was issued in the spring of 2003. My most recent novel is The Fox’s Walk, also published by Harcourt and I am just finishing a non-fiction work, similar in tone to Walled Gardens, about a branch of my family within the historical context of the First World War and the struggle for Irish independence.

In addition to my novels, I edited the Literary Companion to Gambling (the use of gambling as a metaphor in literature), have reviewed books for The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, and have written about houses and gardens, and travel. My most recent essay “Reading War and Peace to William Maxwell” was published in A William Maxwell Portrait, published by Norton.

I live in Manhattan and Vermont, where I teach Literature at Bennington College.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dower House is a fascinating coming-of-age book set first in County Waterford, Ireland, then England, in the 1950s/early 1960s. The main characters are cash-poor Anglo-Irish gentry and the differences between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant English are delineated in a clear and compelling manner. A particularly notable example is the discussion of jewelry - pearls should be real and inherited, while diamonds should be eighteenth-century paste, also inherited, as opposed to the genuine, purchased gems - the Anglo-Irish representing the "old is better" standpoint, poignant especially as the traditional way of life was, at the time, becoming untenable.

[Randy Ladenheim-Gil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off very, very slowly for me, though things picked up about midway through. I don't know all that much about the Anglo-Irish and I find it kind of difficult to feel sorry for them; I'm a Give Ireland Back to the Irish person, and if life was so hard for these sad, once-wealthy people, why don't they get off their behinds and get jobs? We follow Molly, who becomes orphaned in the course of the book, through the fifties and early sixties, when she follows her cousin Sophie to London. I didn't care that Molly found it so difficult to eat meat, etc., and there was so much of that to start with. Not a bad coming of age book, just not as good as reviewers and some readers think. Other than Molly, the characters were bleak and at times uninteresting. Why on earth did she fall in love with Desmond? If anyone can explain that, I'd love to hear!

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annabel Davis Goff´s prose is indeed elegant, rich and delightful as a Christmas dinner. I really like this book ( especially the details about the aristocracy´s decrepitude) that while still in the middle of it I ordered Davis-Goff´s " This Cold Country"

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Widely praised for her rich and elegant prose, Annabel Davis-Goff delivers the story of Molly Hassad, an Anglo-Irish orphan coming of age in a formerly privileged society. As the Protestant-Irish emerge from the postwar years, they refuse to face the inevitable. They have beautiful old houses, but can scarcely afford to heat them; eat meals on exquisitely set tables, while the roof leaks; and talk very seriously about the importance of making suitable marriages.

"When Molly flees the genteel poverty of Ireland for London of the 1960s, she must balance the allure of the new against the romance of a world that no longer exists."
~~back cover

This is a lovely, gentle book. The plot follows Molly, from a shy, demure little girl to a shy, demure young woman, who's fallen hopelessly in love with a distant acquaintance after one dance at a ball. The hopefulness/hopelessness of this adulation is the leitmotif of the novel, but the side motifs are also fascinating, portraying, as they do, the gentle, mannerly disintegration of their world. It's aslow starter, but it became more and more engrossing & mesmerizing as I persevered.

[Marie Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I didn't expect to like this book because it was in a later time period than I like. I have to admit that I learned that the nostalgia I have for English and Irish homes is not as romantic as I originally thought! As the bank accounts of the wealthy decreased, so did the extravagance of their estates.

[C]

This year's reading included Homestead by Rosina Lippi, which I also read later. Goodreads will only include once.

[Sarah Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molly is raised in genteel poverty in Ireland in the 1960s. The only child of a younger son, she is orphaned while still relatively young and her future seems uncertain. It's clear to Molly that the way of life that her family and social class are accustomed to cannot survive and will possibly expire before she does. They cannot maintain their vast homes and live off the hand-me-downs from older, more prosperous generations, indefinitely.

Throughout the novel, the prevailing sense of Molly being caught up in a dying way of life dulls what should be Molly's optimistic outlook on her future. Even as an eight year old child, she is quite cognizant of this reality of decline: "We're living on leftovers, preserving and patching and making things last. There's not quite enough to last my parents' generation, and there really won't be enough for you and me" (10). While others may see continuing in this way of life as "passive and unimaginative," Molly and her family see it as courageous "to continue in the life and traditions of the already almost extinct Anglo-Irish" (102).

This sense of a doom is heightened by Molly's status within her family as the child of the younger son. Molly is viewed and treated as a poor relation, always coming in second place to her cousin Sophie. Later on, Molly lives with her two widowed great-aunts, rounding out the trio of ladies who cheerfully keep up standards as they are accustomed to, darning and patching holes to extend the life that they know is destined to end. Molly spends much of her time with elderly family members who are nostalgic for the past rather than allowing her unfettered access to explore her future.

The narrative of this novel felt strangely impersonal, although I suppose that is in keeping with the stiff upper lip mentality in which Molly is raised. When she goes off to school, social troubles are only vaguely alluded to; "After a few painful mistakes, she learned that girls who sought confidences usually did so in order to betray them" (27). What these mistakes may have been are never revealed. Likewise, Molly has no true real confidante, living a grim, emotionally isolated existence within a decaying social strata. Molly believes that her family's way of life might struggle on for maybe another two generations. "She felt as though she were disappearing, fading away, becoming invisible. She felt as thought she knew how it would feel to be a ghost" (164).

After finishing this book, it felt as if very little had happened within its pages, other than a girl coming to age and a depiction of life during the decline of the great estate way of life. I liked Molly as a character enormously and I admired her stoic forbearance in the face of great sadness and poor luck in such a short life. Despite the hardships and inevitable decline, the book seems to argue that carrying on with traditions with honor is far preferable to finding an out. Sophie, who marries a rich man to escape her family's lifestyle, ends up listless and unhappy while I believe that Molly will go on to have a much happier life.

[Jina Howell-Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical Family Saga featuring the Protestant Aristocracy in The Republic of Ireland in the 1950's and early 60's. This is a character driven book set mostly in Ireland but also some in England. Very much a character-driven coming of age story with lots of scenic descriptions, political explanations. I liked it very much. Due to regional accents, I was glad to be able to listen to it as an audio book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Aga-saga, this time set in mid-century Ireland. The author does a great job detailing the decline of the Anglo-Irish way of life: the set rituals, the delicate class prejudices and structure (who knew about pearls and paste?), the slow seeping of change. This is one of those leave-it-to-your imagination books, where the ending is a gentle glide rather than a full stop.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell was this even about? Slow, languid, boring characters. Yet, I read it anyway. Something kept me going. Self punishment, I guess.